Psycho-Emotional Development of the Child
Children are not miniature adults. They are beings undergoing both physical and psychological development, and their growth is a process that does not always run smoothly and that happens in a series of stages. Furthermore, any psychopathological symptoms in the child must still be put in the perspective of maturing [1]. Children are beings dependent on their families. While also grappling with their family, their functioning can only be understood in the light of its emotional and relational organization.
Sigmund Freud put forward the hypothesis that, based on their vital needs, children seek to undergo and relive pleasurable experiences. Thus, the need/desire dialectic comes to make an impression on the child and organizes the entire psycho-emotional development. The Oedipus complex (between the ages of 2 or 3 and 6 or 7) is one of its universal features. Because it plays a key part in the emotional future of the child, the Oedipal conflict leaves its mark on the childhood story as well as the journey of adulthood.
When they manage to become less involved in the passions (with incestuous and parricidal overtones) of their infancy linked to their father and mother, based on both love (affection, tenderness, etc.) and hate (aggression, desire, jealousy, etc.), the child enters a “latent” period, by which their socio-educational and cognitive investment becomes central. Psychological energy is displaced and invested in the learning (reading, writing, etc.) that, around the age of 7 or 8 and beyond, occupies a special place in the child’s life. Simultaneously, the child learns to love other individuals (teachers, leaders, peers, etc.) using the yardstick of an internalized emotional parental model. For example, for the little boy, love for the internalized mother figure remains a trace, a residue that serves only to prepare for the future love choice. This latency is nonetheless a particularly fertile period for the child’s psycho-emotional development in that it also implicitly prepares for the changes specific to puberty, both physical and psychological. It is during this journey that adolescence constitutes the “afterwardsness” of childhood.
Psychological Challenges of Physical and Pubertal Transformations
Puberty is considered as one of the subjective crisis moments in life associated with biological upheaval. This essential moment in the process of adolescence is characterized by a series of transformations, the outcome of which is not prewritten. This “process” is determined by what has gone before (childhood) and is a determining factor in what will follow. This process is a second chance to deal with childhood conflicts that have not been resolved. Adolescence enables children to become the subject (of their story and their life), to be able to take control of their own body and thoughts and to be capable of making a choice of object, particularly a sexual one.
While “adolescence” constitutes a period in life defined by an age range (11–12 years to 18–20 years nowadays), it nonetheless remains superimposed on a period of physiological and anatomical changes referred to by the term “puberty.” Adolescent psychoanalysts (P. Gutton, P. Jeammet, C. Chabert, F. Marty, etc.) describe the psychological upheavals inherent in this period as “pubertal,” demanding real psychological work of the young person to prepare for puberty.
While the child was protected from carrying out any incestuous and parricidal desires, in particular because of his/her physical immaturity, the protective immature infantile body is transformed by the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics. The body image is modified, as is the importance given to it. This change in body image is reflected in behaviour such as the need for activity, a desire for knowledge, the refusal of maternal care, etc. With the arrival of puberty, children suddenly find themselves undergoing a great upheaval that they can neither control nor master. Their body is changing, and they recognize neither their emotions nor sometimes their thoughts. They even have the feeling that adults no longer look at them in the same way, and this is not wrong; the boy’s body becomes that of a man and the girl’s body becomes that of a woman. The body’s “betrayal” requires them to leave the protective cocoon of childhood [2]. This body attracts the attention of adults and peers, causing reactions, comments, and looks. Simultaneously, libidinous impulses sexualize their relationships with others. Relationships with those around them become difficult. Even physical contact with parents, brothers, and sisters becomes a source of discomfort, or even anxiety. Hugs are given rarely; they must keep their distance.
In this context, incest and parricide, desires from the Oedipal period, become achievable. Faced with the threat of these impassioned possibilities, the adolescent erects a protective defensive barrier. This “defence crisis” sometimes takes unusual forms: a wall of sound (adolescents shutting themselves up in their bedroom with background music), spending hours on the telephone (avoiding all contact with parents), intellectualization (defence involving great philosophical debates, big questions on the state of the world, “who am I?”), verbal aggression (projection dispels the anxiety that “anyway, it’s all my parents’ fault” or even “it’s because of doctors that I am like this”), etc. These characteristic changes show the extent to which, for the adolescent, the enemy is the body (now sexual, genital, and leading to fantasies), capable of pleasure in the sexual act. This defensive crisis is necessary to absorb the shock of puberty, considered as a necessary trauma.
It is a matter of the young person undergoing one of the greatest tests in their life by having to escape the authority, love, and tenderness of their parents. This necessary emotional shedding of the figures of guardianship and love ultimately allows the young person to make other commitments to the outside world and to others (parental substitutes, peer groups). Meanwhile, we see a dual change. It is not uncommon to see the adolescent enter a depressive period, marked by sadness; simultaneously, the adolescent dedicates him/herself to an intense love (particularly glances in the mirror), a normal and necessary narcissistic preoccupation.
Finally, we should emphasize that a pubescent adolescent becomes capable of procreating, consequently gaining access to a new power until then available only to parents. The imbalance between adults and children is reduced because the generation gap as well as the differences (physical, psychological, cognitive, etc.) are smaller. In reality, the adolescent gains certain adult powers; in their imagination, de facto, adults become rivals.
Relationship disputes arise to highlight the young person’s status as a differentiated individual, capable of personal ideas and not subject to influence. Simultaneously, they enable them not to be isolated and therefore rejected; time spent in discussion is time when one is not alone, so the link is maintained. Thus, self-assertion is expressed by putting others at a distance: the adolescent repels the adult to feel more as if existing separately. Likewise, parents also assert the difference between themselves and their child: generational difference, difference in tastes, difference of ideas, etc. The confrontation with frustrations punctuates this period, during which anxiety and doubt invade the psyche; the adolescent can lose confidence. They would already like to lead an adult life but are not ready yet, either psychologically or materially. Maintaining parental authority reassures the adolescents, showing them that they are loved, that they are important and that they can count on others. They must feel the need for independence and the need for attachment at the same time.
The psychological effort that underpins the whole process of “adolescence” is achieved by development work. This development with its crises, conflicts, and distancing enables the adolescents